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Getting Started

Quick Start Guide

Welcome to ShellPod. This guide will walk you through creating your first persistent Claude Code session in the cloud, from sign-up to running your first prompt.

Step 1: Create your account

Head to shellpod.dev and click Get Early Access. You will be taken through a quick sign-up flow powered by Clerk. You can sign up with your email or with a social provider like GitHub or Google.

Once signed in, you will land on your dashboard. This is your control center for managing your ShellPod session.

Step 2: Start your session

Your dashboard shows a session card with a Start Session button. Click it, and ShellPod will provision a dedicated Linux container for you. This typically takes 10-15 seconds. You will see the status change from "Starting" to "Running."

Your container is a real Linux environment running on dedicated cloud hardware. It has 4 vCPUs, 8 GB of RAM, and a fast SSD — plenty of horsepower for Claude Code and your projects.

Step 3: Open your terminal

Once your session is running, click Open Terminal. This opens a full web-based terminal (powered by Wetty) in a new browser tab. You are now connected via SSH to your container through a secure, authenticated connection.

The terminal works just like any other terminal. You can run commands, edit files, install packages, and do everything you would normally do on a Linux machine. The terminal session runs inside tmux, which means it persists even if you close your browser tab.

Step 4: Authenticate Claude Code

Claude Code comes pre-installed in your container. To start using it, you need to authenticate with your Anthropic account. Run:

claude

The first time you run Claude Code, it will prompt you to authenticate. You have two options:

  • Anthropic Pro/Max subscription: Select "Anthropic (Pro/Max)" and follow the OAuth flow. A URL will be displayed — open it in your browser, sign in with your Anthropic account, and authorize the connection.
  • API key: Select "API Key" and paste your Anthropic API key. You can generate one at console.anthropic.com.

ShellPod never sees or stores your API key or Anthropic credentials. Authentication happens directly between Claude Code (running in your container) and Anthropic's servers.

Step 5: Start coding

Once authenticated, Claude Code is ready. Try a simple prompt to verify everything works:

claude "What directory am I in? List the files here."

You should see Claude Code respond with your current directory contents. From here, you can clone a repository, start a new project, or just explore. Check out our Connecting Your Repo guide for setting up your GitHub access.

Step 6: Close and reconnect

The best part of ShellPod is persistence. Close your browser tab — your session keeps running. Come back later, click Open Terminal again, and you will be right where you left off. Your files, your git history, your running processes — everything persists.

If you had Claude Code running a long task, it will have continued working in the background. Just reattach to your tmux session and check the results.

What is next?

Now that you have a running session, explore these guides:

Next
Connecting Your Repository →